Hey whats up guys,
Glad I found this little sub-forum.
A little about myself. I played football for butler highschool, I played rugby as well as soccer. So my training has had a pretty strong base. Im a 31B in the US Army. Those of you who have served know what kinda PT you do. The basics, Cals and running and ruck marching. Nothing too special. But as soon as I finish college, I am going through SFAS (special forces assessment and selection). After making this desiscion, I re-vamped my training and have have been looking for any kind of program that could help me on my journey. I came across several programs that have helped me immensely. I have done a military-esque type of cross-fit called SOF-wods for about 5 months now. They have a free website that posts daily training events. Its wonderful training and is definately an ass-kicker. BUT, as of late, its gotten kind of easy. So I dug around the internet and found probably the hardest program I have ever done. Its called the "Horsemans Program". It was created by and for Tier 1 guys/ SEAL-team 3 guys. It is literally the hardest program I have done. And don't get me wrong, Im in shape, I average between 285 as my lowest and 345 on my highest PT test for the three years i've been in. But this junk put me on my ass. I decided to see if anyone wanted to try it but haven't found anyone to do it with me. SO I'll ask if anyone would like to try it. You can PM me for my email, its a rather big file And I can't link it since its on my computer. So if interested, I can send it and who ever wants to give it a try can do it and please post your initial feelings about said workout program.
-P

BUT, I started another round of Insanity this week. I think I updated after I finished Insanity (everything except the last week of it) the first time. It was sometime around October, I had dropped into the 170s, I believe between 173 and 176. Well, I kept hesitating, feeling like I couldn't start for various reasons and hectic schedules, and I of course lost all discipline and started drinking sodas on the regular and eating out several times a week.

I was back up to 190 when I weighed myself Tuesday. I haven't ate all that great this week either, still had some eat-out nights, but I'm planning on being done with it after this week. I felt like I had to ween myself off of the soda b/c of the caffeine... But, my plan is to get through this round and then most likely do another round consecutively to get down into the 160s and my body fat below 15% by the summer.

The biggest challenge for me is cleaning up my diet completely, but I feel like as long as I keep working out I'll be fine and work myself into eating better across the board because I believe my metabolism is naturally high. Forgot to add that I also am going to have to eat tons more Greek yogurt because I have to lay off the protein shakes since I may or may not have had kidney stones after the last round. Oh, and I had to take yesterday off and start back today because I could barely walk after the first two days, lol...

I feel ya proud. My diet is pretty bad. Ill do good for a week and then some one at work will talk me in to going somewhere to eat and before I know it I went out to lunch four times. I am proud to say I've had four drinks this year that weren't water. 2 sodas and 2 lemonades. I'm still struggling getting up in the morning to go to the gym and have yet to go for a run in the evenings this year. My goal for this year is to get up to about 200 - 210lbs after I drop down to about 180. Im a naturally big guy and don't think I can get any smaller then 175 if I wanted. I started this year at 208 and im right around 199 today. Mostly just from cutting out beer and sodas.

i didn't even approach it with that perception. you guys make it sound like a chore. i just didn't want to waste all the hard work i've done and hinder my progress by continuing to eat a bunch of poo.

i've lost fat and trimmed up a good bit but my weight has remained within 5 lbs of my starting point, which is about what i expected being 10-15 lbs overweight

Yeah PSC, what's weird though is midway through my first round of Insanity, I actually started to enjoy eating clean. I really didn't think it was that bad, and I'd reward myself with one cheat meal a week.

But, then falling back into those bad habits, for some reason it does feel like a chore now to ween myself off of the crap. When I started Insanity the last time, I quit soda cold turkey, but for some reason I keep making exceptions for them since I started back this week. I'm a strong-willed person, but I really do think all of the crap and processed food is designed to be addictive.

I know I'll get it in check over the next week or so, but I feel like I'm not ready to and that's the problem. But, like I told my wife, once you start eating clean, you feel different and it's like your body is thanking you - so I'll try to keep that in mind going forward. Problem is, my body also momentarily thanks me for a double bacon cheeseburger and large Dr. Pepper.

i've been drinking diet sodas for several years now, and i don't ever see myself going back. i actually enjoy the taste of diet now. my main problems was the immense portions i would pack away simply because i could.

If switching to a clean diet is your problem, start tracking what you eat. Just eat like you normally do, but track it. After you get used to working out and tracking food, clean up your diet in phases. Do something like, no more fast food. Then drop the snacks. If you do it all at once, it makes it harder. If portion control is an issue, eat slow and use smaller plates. Smaller plates will limit how much you can carry. If eating quick is an issue, sit with someone and have a conversation. Don't talk with your mouth full, and completely chew all your food before you swallow. It takes some time for your stomach to tell the brain it's full. If you do need a snack, go for raw vegetables (in moderation) like carrots, celery, or bell peppers.

Another way to ease into cleaning up your diet is to replace items in recipes. Use 2% cheese if you make a sandwich. If a recipe calls for milk, go with skim, soy, or almond milk. Tricks like that will help.

The biggest mistake people make when they decide to change their diet and lifestyle is going for a massive, all-or-nothing change. The start exerting more effort and eating a lot less. This is a guaranteed way to slow your metabolism and force your body to feed on the muscle mass, not the fat cells. Once you decide you are ready to get your diet straight, find your basal metabolic rate, or bmr. This is how many calories you need to consume to maintain your current physique if you just laid in bed all day. Figuring you are reading this, you have done more today than just lay in bed. Most bmr calculators consider your activity level. This is a good starting point. Without exercising, eat about 300-500 calories less than this number. You shouldn't lose more than 2lbs a week. Anything faster and you compromise muscle tissue. If you exercise, count that as more you can eat. Bmr calculators are all over the internet, and some apps like my fitness pal have them built in.

This will be the last part of this wall of text, I promise. I have mentioned several times that you want to avoid losing muscle mass. People get hung up on what the scale says, so weight loss is weight loss, wrong. A muscular person sitting on the couch burns more calories than a obese person of the same weight. Focus your efforts on body fat percentages, not weight, Your weight will fluctuate constantly. If you must use a scale, weight yourself once a week under the same conditions e.g. first thing in the morning on Monday. I hope this helps.

If switching to a clean diet is your problem, start tracking what you eat. Just eat like you normally do, but track it. After you get used to working out and tracking food, clean up your diet in phases. Do something like, no more fast food. Then drop the snacks. If you do it all at once, it makes it harder. If portion control is an issue, eat slow and use smaller plates. Smaller plates will limit how much you can carry. If eating quick is an issue, sit with someone and have a conversation. Don't talk with your mouth full, and completely chew all your food before you swallow. It takes some time for your stomach to tell the brain it's full. If you do need a snack, go for raw vegetables (in moderation) like carrots, celery, or bell peppers.

Another way to ease into cleaning up your diet is to replace items in recipes. Use 2% cheese if you make a sandwich. If a recipe calls for milk, go with skim, soy, or almond milk. Tricks like that will help.

The biggest mistake people make when they decide to change their diet and lifestyle is going for a massive, all-or-nothing change. The start exerting more effort and eating a lot less. This is a guaranteed way to slow your metabolism and force your body to feed on the muscle mass, not the fat cells. Once you decide you are ready to get your diet straight, find your basal metabolic rate, or bmr. This is how many calories you need to consume to maintain your current physique if you just laid in bed all day. Figuring you are reading this, you have done more today than just lay in bed. Most bmr calculators consider your activity level. This is a good starting point. Without exercising, eat about 300-500 calories less than this number. You shouldn't lose more than 2lbs a week. Anything faster and you compromise muscle tissue. If you exercise, count that as more you can eat. Bmr calculators are all over the internet, and some apps like my fitness pal have them built in.

This will be the last part of this wall of text, I promise. I have mentioned several times that you want to avoid losing muscle mass. People get hung up on what the scale says, so weight loss is weight loss, wrong. A muscular person sitting on the couch burns more calories than a obese person of the same weight. Focus your efforts on body fat percentages, not weight, Your weight will fluctuate constantly. If you must use a scale, weight yourself once a week under the same conditions e.g. first thing in the morning on Monday. I hope this helps.

Definitely did, thanks Bronc!

That's kind of the approach I'm taking this time man. I'm sure I've posted it earlier somewhere along with the pictures of my "prime" fitness level, but even back then my diet wasn't clean. I ate like crap then, I just didn't do it as often because of lack of resources (less fast food, junk in general b/c I didn't have money). Now, I'm eating crap, but much more of it because I'm able to keep buying it.

As I've said, I'm a mentally tough person and I've always been able to cut stuff out when I needed to or what have you... I mean, I've never had a drop of alcohol in my life, nor have I ever used any drugs. So, it's not the mental part. It definitely is the physical and I'm guessing some kind of psychological/physiological deal.

The other difference was, even though I ate like crap back then, all I did was play basketball like 4 hours a day and do sets of crunches and lifts until I went to sleep at night. Now, I think the lack of social structure (no school/work buddies to meet up with to workout) makes for an easy out and I just end up doing nothing.

But, I'll definitely apply what you suggested. I was kind of approaching it that way this time instead of cold turkey to begin with, so hopefully I maintain it this time. Aside from the diet, it's just making sure I do SOMETHING once I'm done with Insanity to keep burning the calories.

Seen it but haven't tried it... may be good for a cutting phase. Be interested to see how you like it.

I've been trying it consistently for a week now (1 in the AM and 1 at 2/3 PM) and I gotta say it works really well. Definitely great for curbing my apetite mid-day and you feel great post-workout. It'll make you sweat more and I feel an interesting combo of alertness and just an overall relaxed state. It's worth the money (39.00 60 count)

I've been trying it consistently for a week now (1 in the AM and 1 at 2/3 PM) and I gotta say it works really well. Definitely great for curbing my apetite mid-day and you feel great post-workout. It'll make you sweat more and I definitely feel an interesting combo of alertness and just an overall relaxed state. It's worth the money (39.00 60 count)